The U.S. Army RDECOM CERDEC I2WD has awarded Areté Associates a $2.3 million contract to develop a Laser Threat Warning System to protect Army fixed- and rotarywing aircraft against laser-guided weapons. Developed by the Tucson, Arizona and Arlington, Virginia offices of Areté Associates, the CatsEye(TM) program will build on their TigersEye(TM) SBIR Phase II effort to develop a broadband Infrared Countermeasure and Laser Beamrider Countermeasure (IRCM/LBRCM) System to protect aircraft against heat-seeking missile and laser-guided missile threats simultaneously. Based on the company's MEMS Beam Steering technology, these next-generation platform protection systems aim to provide substantially improved performance and lower cost over systems currently in use.